I often get asked what I use for fillings for my cake. My favorite and go to recipe is this mousse. Since you personalize the flavoring with a pudding packet you can actually make it in any flavor you like. I like the chocolate, but LOVE pistachio with the chocolate cake.
Chocolate Mousse Cake Filling
1 1/2 C whipping cream
2 envelopes unflavored gelatin
6 Tbsp cold water
6 oz cream cheese, softened (room temp very important)
1 C granulated sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla
2 1/2 C milk
1/2 tsp lemon juice
2 small boxes instant chocolate fudge pudding (or any flavor of your choice)
Whip cream until soft peaks form, set aside. My go to is to use my whisk attachment in my bosch slicer shredder, it’s fast and effective.
Soften gelatin in cold water; heat in microwave on high, 20-30 seconds until dissolved (make sure it’s completely dissolved). Set aside to cool.
Beat cream cheese and sugar until light and fluffy. For this I use my bosch universal mixer
Add vanilla, milk and lemon juice; mix. Add gelatin mixture, stir to combine. Add 2 boxes of pudding, mix.
Fold in whipped cream. Refrigerate until firm, at least 3 hours or overnight.
Once it’s set overnight it’s ready to remix and use! I can fill an entire wedding cake with one batch of this. It makes a TON! With whatever leftovers I have I usually pour it into a graham cracker pie crust and let my kids enjoy it as a pie. They esp love the small individual pie crusts!
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 C heavy whipping cream
- 2 envelopes unflavored gelatin powder
- 6 Tbsp water cold
- 6 oz full fat cream cheese softened (room temp very important)
- 1 C granulated sugar
- 1/2 tsp vanilla
- 2 1/2 C whole milk
- 1/2 tsp lemon juice
- 2 small boxes chocolate pudding or any flavor of your choice
Instructions
- Whip cream until soft peaks form, set aside.
- Soften gelatin in cold water; heat in microwave on high, 20-30 seconds until dissolved (make sure it’s completely dissolved). Set aside to cool.
- Beat cream cheese and sugar until light and fluffy.
- Add vanilla, milk and lemon juice; mix. Add gelatin mixture, stir to combine. Add 2 boxes of pudding, mix.
- Fold in whipped cream. Refrigerate until firm, at least 3 hours or overnight.
- Once it's set overnight it's ready to remix and use! I can fill an entire wedding cake with one batch of this. It makes a TON! With whatever leftovers I have I usually pour it into a graham cracker pie crust and let my kids enjoy it as a pie. They esp love the small individual pie crusts!
Shelly
This sounds SO DELICIOUS!! Esp (like the way I learned your lingo at-a-glance?) when you mention the individual pies. YUM! Thanks for sharing. 🙂
Ashlee
how fun! I never really considered that I have my own lingo… I know I tend to use too many exclamation marks though!. I hope you try it and love it like I do!
Katie
Just found your website and love it…you are very talented! I followed your Rapunzel barbie cake tutorial and made an amazing cake for my daughters’ 3rd birthday….thank you so much…it turned out so well thanks to your directions.
I had a few questions I was hoping you could answer when you get a chance…
I was curious about your filling…because of the cream does the cake need to be refrigerated once filled? If not,
how long can the cake sit at room temperature? Do you ever find that your layers slide with this filling once covered in the heavy fondant? I also saw that you make taller layers, do you bake them at a lower temp for a longer period of time? When you use your pound cake recipes from that website you recommended, I’m assuming you don’t use the tube pan they suggest, how do you figure out how to adjust the temp or time for your pan?
Sorry for all of the questions…thanks in advance for your help and all of your tips and inspiration.
Ashlee
your so welcome! I’m glad you were able to follow them and create something, that always tickles me to no end!
I have been meaning to leave some of my mousse out and see what happens to test that! Once I put fondant on a cake I don’t refrigerate it ever. So I fill the cake, frost it and if I’m not finishing it right away I’ll refrigerate it. Then fondant cover it, decorate it and deliver it. Usually the morning of for an evening event, the night before for a morning event. For the chocolate cake last January since it also had the chocolate swirls I waited until just hours before to decorate and deliver it! But I’ve never had a problem. with all the gelatin it’s pretty darn safe for a while. I’ve left a cake out that I made myself, after serving it for a day and the filling was still fine. But I wouldn’t go over 24 hours .
I don’t lower the temp (but I’m VERY careful with an oven thermometer to make sure my oven is right on point) but I do cook them with bake even strips and for a longer period of time. with any recipe I use the temp they call for, but just keep any eye on my cake and cook it until my cake tester comes out clean. With the taller layers usually at LEAST an hour, often close to 2 for the 8 inch layers.
Hope that helps a little!
Marie Nickler
I want to make your mousse and it seems pretty easy but do you have to use the cream cheese and what if you didn’t want so much of the filling could I half each ingredient to make it for a smaller cake? I really appreciate your feedback.
Ashlee
you can totally cut it in half, or double it, or even cut it into 1/4, I use whatever I have left after a cake and pour it into a graham cracker pie crust for the kids and top with whipped cream! never goes to waste over here!
Shubha
Can I Skip the cream cheese? CAn u give me a recipe for the mousse filling without the cream chese and which is yet pretty astable?
Ashlee
I wouldn’t, you can search for a mousse without it. once you start messing with a recipe it takes a lot of work to get it “right” again.
Mondaymom
My mousse came out very lumpy! It still tastes amazing…but lumpy. Any idea what I did wrong?
Ashlee
I’m so sorry! What are the lumps of? lumps of the cream cheese mixture that didn’t get mixed up enough before adding the gelatin? or are they hard lumps but of the completed mousse? Was it smooth during ever step of the way and just got lumpy overnight? tell me more and lets see if we can’t figure it out, no one wants lumps in their mousse!!!
Heather Cooper
Mine came out lumpy too… After adding the gelatin and pudding mix. I was worried about “overbeating” the mixture because I know the pudding and gelatin have to set, maybe that’s what I did wrong? The lumps look like bits of chocolate, and now the chocolate flavor is pretty mild. How long did you mix it after the gelatin and before folding in the whipped cream?
Ashlee
That’s so weird, I never had a problem with it! I totally beat away! I don’t know that you could over beat it, unless you waited to long and it started to set. I totally whipped the heck out of it before folding in the whipped cream.
Patsy
How can I change this to chocolate Kahula mousse?
Ashlee
I don’t work with liquors at all so I have no idea, I’d try substituting out some of the liquid? see how that goes.